I am so sorry for the delay. I repeatedly kept shifting my writing time late into the night and while writing didn't get much done because of that. This Chapter is a bit longer as reconciliation and I hope to still manage the weekly updates. Without further dely, let's get to reading then. Enjoy
Chapter 14
"They're back" Frida shouts as she heard the signature high-pitched whistle of a Night Fury.
What once instilled fear in even the mightiest Vikings has become a sign of joy for the little tribe of Drakvill, as it had been unanimously agreed upon on a day the entire Village randomly went into a fit on what this place and by extension tribe was called.
Hiccup swept over the village, a good dozen of Dragons in tow. Watching the people flood out of their houses to see how their Chief was doing from his last excursion.
It has been over one and a half years Cami found him and he made his own tribe, two since he left his once-home.
After fighting the Flightmare, He and Astrid had spent even more time together, which surprised Hiccup a bit since he thought it to be physically impossible, with how much time they already spent together.
On his next trip to the market, Astrid came with him instead of watching the Dragons. This time, he overheard stories about a legendary warrior of the gods, who could beat Dragons into submission with only a glance, so strong that even a Night Fury bows at his will.
With this amount of exasperation, he didn't recognize he was supposed to be this fighter and asked about for more Information about him, not liking the idea of someone commanding Dragons like that.
The group told him how this 'Dragon Master' jumped on a Dragons back and rode it, which spurned Alvin and his Outcasts to try it themselves, so that they can strengthen their military force.
Since then he and Astrid regularly made a trip to Outcast Island every once in a month to free Dragons if they managed to capture any more. Even with more training in first hand combat, Astrid makes sure he isn't out fighting his life off while she gets the easy job like the first time.
Heather visited some time in the last few months and Hiccup showed her a way to stay in touch he recently learned. Terror Mail.
This idea came from his own Terror, who he accidentally bonded with when trying to get him to not burn a notebook of his. He only wanted to ask Frida about helping him with his armor and Sharpshot, as he called the green Terror, asked if he should relate the message for him. Frida didn't know Dragonese, as did everyone else except him Astrid and Cami after she had gotten onto his nerves for two weeks, so he ended up writing it down and sending Sharpshot to give her the request.
Over the last year, the population of the Island has changed a few times, all of which has been through unexpected visitors.
First was a man named Arne, a middle-aged mix between brawny on the outside and confident without arrogant on the inside. Instead of screaming or trashing or what you'd expect from someone who just crashed on a random beach and woke up to multiple people and Dragons looking down on you, he simply looked scared and asked a lot of questions, making sure he really wasn't in any danger. He quickly grew a liking to a horde of Terrible Terrors and wanting to contribute something to the tribe who took him in, he trained them to patrol around the Island.
After that the next two came in a pair. A mother and her son. Instead of Arne, they landed here on purpose, having seen some people flying around and hoping they could help them. Asfrith and Aslak came from an Island that was raided overnight and they were the only two to get away, having been taking a walk in the forest.
The fourth addition got lost on a fishing trip and roamed the seas for a few days before being spotted by the Terror Patrol and watched by Hiccup until he arrived on the Island by himself. His name was Gorm and he led the fishing trips with his years of experience, helped by his Green Nightmare, who he dubbed Torchhorn, with a sleek blood red line going across it's back and dark brown spots across its body.
The four got used to living with Dragons fortunately quick. Asfrith and her son shared a Zippleback, since the mother desperately wanted to be at Aslak's side at all times, especially high in the air.
The shouts from Drakvill brought him back to reality. Since he and Toothless flew ahead to do some stunts and break their inner tenson, Astrid and the freed Dragons are still not here, so he has some time to take a look around the village.
Gorm and a few other are currently putting some more fish in the public feeding station at the plaza, an invention by Hiccup after some people complained about always having to get so many fish for their Dragons from the storage house.
Frida, who actually got around and started taking peoples request for new clothing's or stitches as orders and with that got the first real job in the tribe, was currently knitting her time away at a pair of socks.
After her, some people started taking up on their hobbies as serious occupations. Over the time, Drakvill had Frida as a seamstress, a gardener, Asfrith used her knowledge for healing and teached her son, Heather's parents were elected as Elders, Patrol duty, which mainly consisted of Terrors, but since Arne trained them, he got the praise, Gorm the lead fishermen and Cami took over as flight trainer, having loved teaching Heather.
"Eventually you will go dropping off of Toothless if you keep up blanking out." He heard from behind and Astrid got him back to the present.
"Keep reminding me and I'll throw you off Stormfly." He countered. With how close they got over the past few years, light banter has been a stable way of conversing between the two of them. Toothless and Stormfly took turns being amused or annoyed at their riders for the mostly unnecessary, but still pleasant, conversations. "How are the Dragons?"
"Good." She reported dutiful as ever. "Half a dozen this time.". Each time they free Dragons, some follow them to their home either out of respect or because they are much too broken to live on a lone Island.
Of course Hiccup never minded more Dragons, so they could always live in the Forest or near the village. Since nearly everyone had already bonded with their Dragons and a bond with two larger Dragons at the same time is quite rare, most of them lived only by the outskirts and came around for feeding time and a few scratches from the residents.
"Didn't look like much going on with the others." He told Astrid. "You free today?" He asked, a bit hesitant.
"Why? What's up?" Astrid retorted. Hiccup knew the only real things she had going on were training, flying and spending time with Frida or Cami, all of which easily moveable to a different time if she needed to.
"I wanted to show you something." He explained, vague enough to not let the real reason slip, but precise enough to interest her.
Astrid looked at him a bit suspicious. She already knew she wouldn't say no, but why make it easy? Their life's have never been easy. "Last time you said that, Toothless had to save you from falling off a cliff." She joked.
Hiccup gave her an indignant look. "You just don't want to admit the flight suit was a good idea even if the first prototypes were a bit," he recalls the multiple times of nearly falling to his death until he eventually gave up on the Flight suit, just to make a better one based on the real wings of Dragons, "flawed."
She chuckled at his choice of words and how true they were. She had first though, like everyone else, the flying can only be done by way of riding a Dragon, but Hiccup managed to surprise her once again and even though it technically is only gliding, Astrid did think he once again managed the impossible. "So you are sure this time you won't put yourself in mortal danger?"
"Maybe." He answered cheeky.
Astrid smiled at his choice of words. "Okay. When do you want to go?" She asked.
"Around sunset. I can pick you up if you want." He offered and she gave a nod. "Good. I'll be looking after the Dragons and off to the forge after." He explained and quickly got on Toothless for takeoff.
"Want to explain why you asked her out after all this time?" His ever-curious Dragon asked.
Hiccup took a short glance over his shoulder, checking if he was far enough so that only Toothless could hear him. "Todays out two-year anniversary of independence. Around midday two years ago, she first declared her love for me and I for her."
Toothless looked back at his rider to see a sad smile on his face. "And what about that is wrong?" He inquired, eager to know what had his Human troubled.
"Ever since then we grew closer and closer, but we still don't have anything besides a good friendship." He looked into the distance, caught up in memories of pleasant evenings spent having a talk with Astrid. "What if this new side of me scared her off? Does she even still like me? I don't want it to go back to how it was on Berk." He rambled on, quite sure Toothless zoned out at some point.
"And you decided on asking her in person." His Dragon concluded, clearly not having zoned out, but intently listening.
"No, yes. Maybe." He threw his hands in the air, absentmindedly making sure his position promised enough stability. "I want to ask her, but I don't know how. She's always been more blunt and easy with this." He groaned in Frustration.
Toothless picked up on his Emotional state expectantly easy. "That's not all there is, isn't it?" He asked calm, but stern enough to let him know he won't get to the ground without answering.
Hiccup put his arms back down, falling limp at his sides before stroking Toothless head for Comfort. "Honestly, I'm scared. If I ask her, how do I know the dynamic won't change? I love her, always have, but she's been one of the only constants in my life and I don't want to risk that. I don't even know what she saw in me in the first place."
They flew the rest of the patrol in relative quiet, only broke up when Toothless heard some Dragons bicker and flew over, so that Hiccup could break them up before they could start a forest fire.
…
A few hours later, Hiccup brought up his arm to sipe the sweat from his forehead, looking down at his project, a sword he had worked on for an entire year now, but never found good enough, always looking for small imperfections, like it being too short, the handle too short, not enough space for gel or simply bad production and normal malfunctions from rust.
At first it started as a normal sword which could retract into it's handle for easier carriage, then he accidently let a flask of Nightmare gel fall over it and the sword burnt until he extinguished the flames and got the idea of incorporating it in the sword as a feature for a small surprise moment in combat. Once done, he saw the fire had effects on wild Dragons when freeing them from the Outcasts and calmed them down, which Toothless explained was because they could sense a sort of familiarity when he could light something ablaze and put more gel in the sword for a prolonged effect rather than a second long surprise.
Now he was working on a way to extinguish the flames instead of having to retract it each time, because he didn't have that spare moment sometimes and the he couldn't store enough of the gel in the handle to let it burn too long.
He looked up to see the sun already at the horizon, slowly making way for the brilliant shine of the moon and stars to illuminate the skies.
Hiccup put aside his tools, put his shirt back on and put the hearth of the forge out. He once let the fire burn when he was nine because when he inevitably came first into the forge, courtesy of not having someone to spent time with than Gobber, he always shivered for a few minutes until the warmth started filling his being. So he definitely did not want to repeat that now that instead of a lecture from his father, he'd have to rebuild the forge himself and that meant getting materials and that meant going to the markets, which he still loathed.
He shook his head from the memories and focused on the present, waking up Toothless from his sleeping spot always close to him, even if his heightened hearing should make it unbearable to be near all the hammering.
"Is it already that late?" He asked dreamily, clearly not amused at being woken.
Hiccup rolled his eyes and waited for him to stretch the sleep out of him. "Do I need to remind you that you used to raid us at nights and have the advantage in it." He replied, now climbing onto his Dragon.
Toothless took off into the sky searching the floor for the familiar sight of Stormfly. "And do I need to remind you that back then I didn't live with you day active humans." He sarcastically remarked back. They bantered for a bit until Toothless ears perk up "Over there." He called back to his rider, giving a curt nod towards the direction he was meaning.
Certainly enough, when he looked, Hiccup could see a blur of yellow and blue in the distance, which he knew to be Stormly from the second he saw her. Due to the awe-inspiring speed of a Night Fury, they could het to them in a few seconds and Hiccup patted the side of Toothless neck as a thanks for the flight as he greeted Stormfly.
"How's it going?" He asked the Nadder, anxious in multiple ways to speak with Astrid and trying to divert his thought from the impending conversation.
Stormfly locked eyes with him and grew a happy smile, always fond of seeing the best human friend of her companion. "Quite pleasant." She answered, more polite than Toothless ever was and sometimes Hiccup wished she could teach him. "You must be here for Astrid." She assumed and he gave a quick nod as confirmation "She left not so long ago for quick endurance training since you two won't train today."
Hiccup didn't know if he should sigh of relief, because he didn't have to face Astrid for a bit longer or grow tense that he had to speculate longer on how everything would play out. Luckily or unluckily, however one would see it, Astrid apparently had finished her exercise, as she came strolling towards them from the forest.
When she saw Hiccup and Toothless waiting together with Stormfly, she broke off into a sprint until being relatively close. "I've been wondering where you two dozed off again." She said, having picked up a bit off Hiccup's humor over the time.
"Nothing special." Toothless replied for Hiccup. "He just got lost in his work. Again." He added with a smirk.
Astrid rolled her eyes playfully. "Really? You ask me If I have time and then you get lost in your little project." She teased him, though still a bit grateful, since sometimes he could miss their dates, still not called that by both, by full hours because he had lost track of time in the forge.
"You shouldn't leave a lady waiting like that." Stormfly chirped in, happy to indulge.
Hiccup groaned, looking incredulously between the three of them. "Three on one? Come on that's not fair." He whined, but couldn't suppress the grin spreading onto his face. "Now if you are done complaining about me enjoying a hobby," He started and all of the attendants had to suppress a silent 'sometimes too much'. "We could actually go instead of delaying this any further.". Hiccup didn't care if it sounded somewhat impatient, because truly speaking he was.
"I suppose we can get going." Astrid agreed, perplexed at what had him so anxious. "Does Stormfly need to come? I kind off had her flying the whole day to spent my time and she's a bit tired." She explained even through the constant retaliation from Stormfly saying she was okay.
"It's okay." He reassured her. "I bet Toothless can spare a second seat." He shot said Dragon a look that openly said 'I swear if you fuck this up for me'.
The Night Fury and human had a stare off, but after some time, Toothless sighed and softened his facial features. "Yeah, Okay." Toothless retaliated. If he was being honest, he didn't mind at all, since he had been getting rest the entire day and only one human more isn't that much weight.
Hiccup beamed at that. "Great." He climbed back on to Toothless and held a hand out for Astrid. "Milady." He teased and watched as Astrid shyly took it to climb on behind him.
Astrid meanwhile cursed herself. He used that Nickname way too often to count and while she had grown relatively accustomed to it, she could never not blush at it.
"Want to tell me where we are going?" She asked him from her spot behind him, encircling him with her arms, equally to keep herself safe as well as pull him closer. She rested her head on his shoulder, luckily the flight was slow enough for that.
"Just you wait." Hiccup answered, keeping cryptic. "If you really want to be surprised, you could close your eyes and wait 'till I tell you to open them."
Astrid gave a slight chuckle and grew a smile on her face. He obviously wanted to surprise her with something and have her close her eyes, but, considerate as he is, he still stated is as more of an option. She gave a hum of agreement at his idea and kept her eyes closed, focusing on the feeling of wind in her face, the muscles of Toothless working under her and Hiccup flushed against her, or rather her flushed against Hiccup.
A few minutes of the gentle evening breeze later, Astrid felt Toothless shift into a slow dive and held on a bit stronger. The descent only lasted for a few seconds at most until they came to a complete halt.
"Can I open my eyes now?" Astrid asked, a bit of amusement in her voice, but still sincere.
She could literally hear his grin when he spoke. "Not yet. But were very close, just a few steps." He held her arm, guiding her down of Toothless and took her hand, leading her the few steps he talked about. Hiccup sat down, prompting Astrid to follow his example, since he still held her hand and she didn't want to let go of it. "Now you can."
She did as told, opening her eyes and instantly closing them again, having been accustomed to the dimmed light from under her eyelids. She slowly opened them again, giving them time to adjust this time. Once she could see good enough to look around, she opened her mouth to marvel at the sight.
They sat at the edge of the cliff, maybe one or two steps away from the drop. As she looked down, the entire village lay before them, the buildings and Dragons clear, but the humans mere blobs walking around. From the directions they saw the houses and where the ocean lay, Astrid presumed, they sat directly above the great hall's entrance door, a steep cliff she had often marveled at but never thought of going.
Sitting so high up, overlooking everything like it was a miniature game board, she felt more important, more powerful than ever before. She had always thought the best she could do was be the best fighter in her generation, maybe even a few generations after, but never had she thought she could do anything noteworthy for the distance future. Now she sat before an entire village of people with a new lifestyle, previously thought to be ludicrous, ruling alongside the chief, who also happened to be her best friend.
She gave a long sigh, freeing her mind from all these thoughts and shifted, so that she sat in Hiccups lap instead of leaning on his shoulder, a position they had become very comfortable with for the past year. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close so he could rest his chin on her head while she laid back against his chest.
"You like it?" Hiccup asked, his voice barely above a whisper, but Astrid sat so close she could practically hear him speaking, sending pleasant shivers down her spine from the vibration of his throat while talking. She once again closed here eyes, not needing to see the view to know her answer. She hummed and gave a small smile, once he probably saw, because she felt his face grow into one itself.
They sat there in a relative silence, only hearing the chirping of birds and Dragons, the winds blowing past them in a warm evening breath and their respective breaths.
A full ten minutes later, Hiccup finally broke the silence. "Look." He said and she opened her eyes slightly. She saw his finger pointed at the sky, filled with brilliant colors ranging from the warmest of yellow-oranges to a gorgeous purple, where the Night had already affected the ever-changing lighting. "Now comes the best part."
Astrid, still looking into the mix of color, weaving together and practically changing with every second the sun set seriously debated calling him out that nothing could get better, but that protest quickly died in her throat.
She gave a surprised gasp, when the Northern light illuminated the skies, normally hidden by the clouds, but from this point of view they had a perfect sight of it. The green mixed with the orange, warming her on the inside with the scene of colors and the bright shining of the light made the naturally beautiful sky seem like literal Valhalla. Both purples, one from the darkening sky and one from the lights, lighting it up blended into one another, making them glow, but also still look as smooth as ever.
The moment felt perfect and when Hiccup spoke again, she didn't know if she really wanted him too, a thing she has never thought in the past two years. "Astrid. I wanted to ask you something." He asked, her and she felt his entire body stiffen, his voice laced with nervousness and possibly a bit of fear.
She immediately regretted every thought of not wanting this moment to be interrupted by his voice. Whatever got him this nervous, she would gladly hear him out and do everything she could to lift whatever he has to shoulder with him.
"Since we got here, heck, ever since you followed me with Stormfly," He began and Astrid hated herself even more. He had been troubled by this for two years now and she never noticed. "we have spent so much time together and don't take this wrong. I loved every second of it. Okay maybe not every." He hastily added, trying to lighten up the mood. "What I'm trying to say is-" He cut himself off.
She leaned away slightly, only enough to get a look at his face when she turned around. He had his brown pulled down in a frown, looking off into the distance. Something there must have gotten his attention, since instead of a glazed over look, his eyes concentrated. He pulled out his spyglass. She followed the direction and only saw a blur of black in the distance, probably the reason he had to use the gadget at all.
Once he got a good look, his frown turned into a full-on grimace and she wondered what could be so bad. "What is it?" She asked, not able to hold back her curiosity. He gave her his Spyglass, not uttering a single word. She looked at the blob, which miraculously seemed to be getting close.
In fact, it was really getting close. Once she saw what it had been, she also knew how and why. The blob turned out to be more than one being, rather about a dozen or so. There were Nightmares, Nadders, Terrors, Gronkles and some other species. She put the Spyglass down, gaping at the empty air. Hiccup seemed to had come to the same conclusion as her on why these Dragons had come along and voiced their thoughts out loud, simultaneously answering her question, even though both wanted it so desperately to not be true.
"A Dragon Raid."
Oh no. The obligyatory Cliffhanger once the story gets going. I hope the intoduction wasn't too short and you all managed to go with it. Please consider writing a comment to ask about anything that is unclear from the time skip.